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Have you ever considered a vocation to the priesthood or the religious life?

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Eyes toward heaven

Today's priests must focus on multiple worldly activities on a regular basis, whether that means writing a meaningful homily, figuring out parish finances or dealing with an air-conditioner that doesn't work. But one of their key roles role is to keep the focus on God amid the flurry of human activities, both for his parishioners and himself. So writes Bishop Robert Vasa of Bend, Ore., in a July 9 reflection on the Year for Priests in the Catholic Sentinel.

Bishop Vasa writes: "This recognition that all depends on God and on prayer may not be consistent with our life experience. It may seem that any good that has been done or accomplished has been the result of careful human planning, diligent human work, clever human ingenuity, scintillating human personality, or wondrous human creativity. There is no doubt that these are all useful and valuable. They may even, of their own, produce great human or secular results. Yet, if we believe St. John of the Cross, 'without prayer, all they do amounts to nothing more than noise and uproar; it is like a hammer banging on an anvil and echoing over the neighborhood.' The sad reality is that most of us, myself included, would rather hear the banging of a hammer on an anvil because it sounds like a great deal of progress is being made. Perhaps one of the important roles of the priest is to help assure that while the anvil hammering goes on it is always done in the context of God and prayer. One portion of the definition of a priest could include 'the man who prays' or perhaps a little better, 'the man of prayer.'"